The CBI on Thursday filed two more chargesheets before the Ernakulam CBI Special Court against two officials of the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and others for accepting bribe for granting three-star status to several hotels in Malabar.
The accused are N Velmurugan, assistant director, K S Sabu, tourism information officer, and K Sreekantan, managing partner, Surya Residency, Edakkad, Kannur. The CBI said that on February 2011 Soorya Residency owners submitted an application for three-star status. Following this an inspection was conducted by the Hotel and Restaurant Approval and Classification Committee (HACC) of ITDC. The first accused Velmurugan was in the committee. The approval was granted on the same day. However, the two officials demanded bribe for speeding up the issuance of certificate. Based on this Surya Residency managers gave Rs 75,000 and luxury watches to them.
In the second chargesheet, two officials are arraigned as main accused. A M Raveendran, managing director of Pearl View Regency, Thalassery, is the other accused. The officials received Rs 30,000 and two ornamental peacocks as a gift from him.
The offences against the accused are under Section 120B (Criminal Conspiracy) of IPC and prevention of corruption act, the CBI submitted.
CBI Inspector C B Ramadevan submitted that Velmurugan, Sabu and other accused had entered into a conspiracy and obtained illegal financial gain by granting star-status to the hotels.